ILM runway project nearing completion

Left to right, Tim Randall and Devin Looper, boath with Precision Approach Engineering, pour concrete to make way for lights on the nearly completed 750 feet runway extension at the Wilmington International Airport in in Wilmington, N.C. Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Last Modified: Wednesday, July 10, 2013 at 11:30 p.m.

The airport's north-south runway – which runs from Smith Creek to near the intersection of Blue Clay Road and North Kerr Avenue – will see an added 750 feet added to its northern end. The addition is necessary to make up for a loss of footage several years ago, according to Julie Wilsey, the airport's deputy director.

Wilsey said the airport has been working extensively since 1999 to improve runway safety, but in 2005 the federal rules changed. That year an airplane attempting to land at Chicago's Midway Airport skidded off an icy runway before finally stopping in a public street – killing one person and injuring four in a car, along with another 18 on the plane.

In response to the incident, Congress, along with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), mandated that airports must improve their runway safety zones by 2015 and that the FAA would be responsible for implementation.

As part of this initiative, the Wilmington airport's north-south runway lost 400 feet at its south end in 2009 because of an FAA mandate that every landing strip have at least 1,000 feet at its base to create a safety area for planes that overshoot the runway or come up short on their landings.

This safety area is typically 500 feet wide and extends 1,000 feet beyond each end of the runway.

But many airports, including Wilmington, were built before the 1,000-foot runway safety area length was adopted some 20 years ago. That's made it difficult for some airports to meet the updated safety standard due to limitations such as bodies of water, highways, railroads, businesses and homes.

"We had to shorten the runway to meet the safety area requirements," Wilsey said. "But now they are giving us money to add it to the other end."

The project will add 750 feet to the pavement, including 400 feet of runway and 350 feet of taxiway, bringing the north-south runway back to its original length of 7,000 feet.

About 90 percent of the $4 million project cost came from FAA grants, with the airport covering the rest.

"It's been a big investment by the FAA and it's taken many years and a lot of coordination by the airport to get it done," Wilsey said.

This project has closed the north-south runway for more than 80 days, she said, so the airport has had to rely solely on the 8,000-foot east-west runway, which runs roughly parallel to North Kerr Avenue.

"We're very lucky we had the flexibility to be able to do this," Wilsey added.

Work on the runway extension began in October, but the work was quickly shut down for the winter because of the cold temperatures. It picked back up again in April, and the final touches are expected to be completed in August.

Local contracting company S.T. Wooten Corp. handled the work.

"They've been doing a fantastic job, working holidays and weekends to get it done," Wilsey said. "It has just been a challenging year because of the wet weather."

The FAA created an improvement plan for the runways at about 575 commercial airports back in 2005 and started tracking their progress. Of the approximately 1,000 runway safety areas at these airports, an estimated 65 percent have been improved to full standards, and about 90 percent have been improved to the extent practicable, according to 2012 FAA data.

Wilmington International will fall into the full standards category after this extension project is complete.

"It's good to see this project come to a finale," Wilsey said. "But we're always looking to see what more we can do to improve ILM."